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Angelika Schwalber becomes first “German Chocolate Master”

On Tuesday 25th May 2004, Angelika Schwalber proved her craftsmanship with chocolate during the “German Chocolate Master” competition. As the top-scoring contestant, she earned the title of “German Chocolate Master 2004” and will go forward to the world final.

Five creative young chocolate artisans took the challenge of competing against each other in this national competition. Markus Podzimek from Neunkirchen, Angelika Schwalber from Alling-Holzkirchen, Dorte Schetter-Goeckler from Metzingen, Heiko Oswald from Remchingen and Nora Kristin Czudaj from Lübeck presented their creations to an extensive jury of chocolate experts from all over the country, as well as people from the trade press and other opinion leaders. All creations were judged on taste, visual aspects and technical implications. The judges were Mr Lothar Buß, Callebaut Chocolate Ambassador, Mr Eduard Rieger of Konditorei Rieger, Mr Ralf Bos of Feinkosthandlung Bos Food, Mr Rainer Scholten of Koditorei Scholten, Mr Olaf Witteck, Production Chef of Konditorei Faßbender, Mr Ewald Knauf, director of the Konditorenmeisterschule, Mr Oliver Müller, Somelier Vintage Claudia Stern, Mr Philippe Vancayseele, Technical Advisor of Barry Callebaut, Mrs Gundula Marx, Editor of Konditorei&Café and Mr Fran-Josef Knieps, President of the Handwerkskammer Köln.

Each of them presented a commercial praline, an extremely creative praline, a layered chocolate cake and an artistic chocolate showpiece – all suiting the competition theme „Surrealism“. Moreover, they had to invent and create in place a praline with ingredients from a “Mystery Box”, a well-kept secret range of ingredients that the Organising Committee had selected for them.

Angelika Schwalber won her title because of a highly appreciated combination of technical skills, tasteful creations and creativity in shapes and ingredients. When receiving her award out of the hands of Cologne’s Mayor Josef Müller, emotions limited her comments to “Super..!”

Themost creative and innovative contestant was Heiko Oswald. This 25-year-old chocolatier, who has already won his spurs in other competitions, impressed the jury with his overall originality, even with his “Mystery Box” praline. He won the “German Chocolate Creativity Award 2004”.

The jury was treated with quite some delightful pralines such as a very nicely styled “Aloe-Vera-Rooibos-Truffle” by Schwalber, Czudaj’s “Feuer Süd-Amerika’s” containing tequila or Podzimek’s “Dali” Grappa-truffle egg. Some remarkable chocolate cakes were Schwalber’s “Surrealism of Cassis and Papouasie Chocolate” or Oswald’s “Marcovicreme in chocolate mousse” with carrots. The chocolate showpieces were inspired by famous surrealist artists like Dali, or were very personal creations expressing that what you see is not what is real and similar surrealist ideas. Schetter-Göckler’s idea of the rolling curve was considered very inspirational, while Podzimek found his inspiration in Dalí’s melting clocks and organic shapes like the egg as the source of all life.